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QC07182013

24 The Queens Courier • JUly 18, 2013 for breaking news visit www.queenscourier.com METS ‘LEGACY’ AT BOYS & GIRLS CLUB BY LIAM LA GUERE lguerre@queenscourier.com Major League Baseball (MLB) stepped up to the plate for south Queens. The league announced it will donate $250,000 to build an All-Star Teen Center in the new wing of the Boys and Girls Club of Metro Queens as part of its $5 million legacy project. The Boys & Girls Club is currently undergoing an $11.5 million capital project transformation, with the first phase the completion of the left wing. In a topping off ceremony on Friday, July 12, public officials, Mets and MLB administrators and Boys and Girls Club members signed a white beam that was hoisted and inserted on top of the new wing, which is currently scheduled to be finished in December. “The club has served more than 500,000 children in its 57-year existence,” said Borough President Helen Marshall, who was able to contribute nearly half of the money needed for the renovations. “I am thrilled that this new building will become a second home to thousands of additional children in the surrounding neighborhoods.” The teen center will be a 3,000-square-foot space decorated in Mets orange and blue. It will include a technology lab, a college lab, classroom space, a lounge and a viewing balcony overlooking the new gymnasium. The center will serve high school students in Richmond Public officials, MLB administrators and members of the Boys and Girls Club gathered for the topping ceremony of the new left wing of the club building. Hill, Ozone Park, Woodhaven, Glendale, Howard Beach and Jamaica. “While other clubs have gone extinct, this boys and girls club has become a beacon of hope,” said Senator Joseph Addabbo. The Boys and Girls Club was one of many projects in Queens and New York City chosen by the Mets and MLB as part of their legacy programs. “The Mets and baseball targeted programs that provide great service for New York City, that have worked successfully in the past with both the Mets and Major League Baseball and that are best suited to create lasting THE COURIER/Photos by Liam La Guerre benefits and to make a real difference in the lives of deserving New Yorkers,” said David Cohen, executive vice president of the Mets. After the new wing is erected, the club will begin phase two of the transformation and renovate the old wing. Phase two is slated to begin in April of next year, according to Carol Simon, executive director of the Boys and Girls Club. “It’s a dream come true,” said Joseph Ferrara, chairman emeritus, who has been a part of the club for nearly 45 years. “I always envisioned that I would rebuild this club better.” CHRONICLING THE COMFORT WOMEN BY LIAM LA GUERE lguerre@queenscourier.com A survivor of the Japanese sex camps during World War II recently shared her story with students in the hopes that a younger generation of Americans will learn through her experience. Ok Sun Lee, 85, described how she was brutally kidnapped from Korea as a teenager, tortured and witnessed other women killed by Japanese soldiers in 1942 at the event hosted by Queensborough Community College’s Kupferberg Holocaust Resource Center on July 11. “Instead of being able to attend school, I was dragged by the Japanese military to a comfort station,” Lee said through a translator. “People call us ‘comfort women,’ but I hate that term. They abducted us... There is nothing to be comfortable, being a comfort woman.” During World War II, Japanese soldiers kidnapped women from mostly Asian countries and brought them to prostitution camps. Estimated hundreds of thousands of women were enslaved and about two thirds of them died during the ordeal. The Japanese government apologized to survivors twenty years ago. However, in 2007 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe denied the women were forced into prostitution. Survivors and groups such as Korean American Civic Empowerment (KASE), which helped put the event together, want the Japanese government to admit the existence of “comfort women” to make amends for its military’s actions. Nearly 60 comfort women are still alive in Korea and about 10 of them live with the House of Sharing, a group that looks after the 80- and 90 year-olds. “A lot of the survivors are passing away and ... the government of Japan is waiting for us to die out,” Lee said. Japanese government officials have said that they will stand by the apologies made in 1993, according to reports. The issue gained intensity last year when City Councilmember Peter Koo considered memorializing the dilemma the comfort women faced with a street renaming in Flushing. Koo and supporters were flooding with angry letters from Japan. “Whether we want to be or not, that fact of the matter is we are all survivors and it is our obligation to carry this story forward,” said Assemblymember Charles Lavine. The students who met with Lee were part of an internship with the Holocaust Center this summer. As part of the internship, they interviewed Lee and another comfort woman through Skype along with Holocaust survivors Ethel Katz and Hanne Liebnann. They were also in attendance. The group of students are tasked with holding the memories of the women dear and sharing their stories. “It’s exciting and kind of sad,” said Wei Wu, a freshman of Korean descent. “She is in her eighties and we still don’t have justice, and she is still suffering from her experience. But I’m excited to see her, because she is history and a history we are not really aware of.” Queens Theatre gets new managing director The Queens Theatre is welcoming a brand new face in the family, managing director Taryn Sacramone. On July 11, the Queens Theatre’s board of directors announced Sacramone, who served as executive director for the Astoria Performing Arts Center for eight years, will take her new position in August. “We are delighted that Taryn is joining the Queens Theatre as our new director,” said Frances Resheske, president of the board at Queens Theatre. “She possesses an exciting and remarkable vision for the future of arts programming in Queens. Her arts management experience will be invaluable in making our vision a reality.” As managing director, Sacramone will guide the theatre, located in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, by setting its vision and strategy, overseeing operations, fundraising and marketing. She will also supervise the work that is produced and performed at the venue. “I have been invested in the advancement of the arts in Queens for a long time, and am honored and thrilled to have this new opportunity,” said Sacramone. “I look forward to working with the Queens Theatre board of directors and staff to continue to grow one of the borough’s most exceptional cultural institutions.” Photo Courtesy of Queens Theatre Taryn Sacramone with Queens Theatre Board President Frances A. Resheske.


QC07182013
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